


Blood and Tears

by geewizzle



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff, Gentleness, M/M, edward is stressed tf out, explanation for how Oswald gets the monocle, lee is a doctor who helps everyone, oswald is just sleeping, quick oneshot of just an idea i had and wanted to get down, season 5, soft moments, they're more than friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 11:42:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17059148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geewizzle/pseuds/geewizzle
Summary: As strong arms gripped his shoulders and continued to rush his body through the crowd, Oswald could feel himself slip slowly out of consciousness.He appeared before Edward a celestial being, a martyr, a figure of proof that even bad men were sometimes rewarded with miracles.





	Blood and Tears

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kikorangi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikorangi/gifts).



All he could see was red. 

A dark crimson reminiscent of the roses that sat in a vase at his bedside. A strong hue that was famous for its symbolic portrayal of romance, betrayal and nobility. It flowed through his eye gently, like rain falling down a window pane. 

Oswald grasped his shaky hands over the delicate organ as he felt himself being whisked away from combat. He could barely think, his mind in a blur as the searing pain in his skull overtook all his senses. He could feel the dark liquid pool in his palms and flow down his wrists as if he had been crying tears of blood. The mere thought of how he may be appearing made him instantly feel light headed and sick to his stomach. How grotesque the whole spectacle must be and how weak and utterly defeated Oswald must appear. 

As strong arms gripped his shoulders and continued to rush his body through the crowd, Oswald could feel himself slip slowly out of consciousness. 

His vision was submerged in red like the stained-glass windows of a church, colour tainting every aspect of the world around him. 

The sounds that surrounded Oswald; the shouting of the crowd, the cars driving along the street and the worried voice in his ear were all drowning out into one muffled noise. He felt his undamaged eye roll towards the back of his head as he let himself fall into the safety of darkness.

-  
Edward finished the final stitch on Oswald’s eyelid with nothing but medically trained precision. He cut the wire as gently as he could just in case the other man stirred in his sleep and accidentally damaged his poor eye further. Ed then quickly removed his gloves and washed the delicate eyelid of his friend before patching him up and carefully putting his head back onto the pillow. 

It wasn’t the first time Edward had tended to Oswald’s wounds, but that wasn’t to say that this was a situation that he should be used to. 

Edward was still physically shaken from the entire ordeal that had just occurred prior to an hour ago. He let out a long held in exhale and held the back of his hand to his mouth as he watched Oswald’s sleeping figure. His black hair was unkept and falling onto his brows and his white hospital gown contrasted very much to the monochromatic hues that were accustomed to his wardrobe. Ed had cleaned the blood that was caked onto the other man’s skin, allowing a pink flush to linger. Ed’s eyes were drawn to the expression on the other man’s face, how his undamaged eye now appeared somewhat relaxed and his lips slightly upturned into a calming smile. 

Oh, what a polarizing vision. 

Ed stepped back, finding the chair behind him and pulled it so he was sitting down across from his sleeping friend. The younger man grasped his trembling hands together and laid his chin on top of them, gazing back at Oswald’s body. He let out another fractured breath as he closed his eyes. 

The sudden creak of the metal door asked Edward’s eyes to quickly open again. 

The man turned to find Leslie Thompkins rush back into the makeshift clinic with her salvaged medical gear. 

She gave Edward a quick glance of acknowledgement before she moved over to Oswald, studying the immediate work that Ed had made to his eye. 

“This should do it” she said, approving of Ed’s stitching skills, “you’ll want to put a gauze over his eye and patch the entire area down to avoid infection”. 

Ed quickly nodded, keeping his eyes nowhere but on Oswald. 

“Y-Yes, of course”.

With latex glove clad fingers, Lee carefully lifted Oswald’s jaw and moved his face in order to further asses the damage. 

“Will he be able to see again?” Ed questioned, now looking at the doctor. 

Lee hummed for a moment, “I’m not an optometrist, however most of the bullet’s impact seemed to have affected the brow bone and the flesh above the eye. There is a chance that his eyesight may be permanently affected, but we will only know when he wakes up”. 

Ed nodded, looking back down at the sleeping penguin below him.

“I’m honestly astonished by how lucky he was” Lee continued, “If the bullet hit him just a few more millimetres to the right it would have lodged in his brain and he would be gone”. 

Lee placed the gauze, ointment and painkillers by the Oswald’s bedside and looked him over once more before making her way back out the door. As she got to the doorway however, she abruptly stopped and turned around to face Edward. 

“Ed?” Lee asked, her voice skimming on sympathetic. She knew Ed well, reluctantly. She was aware of the connection that the two men shared, and she knew it was unwise to leave Ed quiet like this, especially if there was a chance that his emotions were becoming unhinged. 

Ed lifted his head back up, looking up at the woman with a silent reply. 

She took a few steps closer.

“Ed, you didn’t tell me how Oswald got shot in the eye” she tested. 

Ed’s eyes widened, he swore that he had told Lee what had happened when he came running through the clinic with the wounded penguin in his arms. 

The scene replayed before him like an old Hollywood film. Flashes of gunshots piercing his eyes and the scent of rain and gunpowder filling his senses. Oswald was beside him, Ed could hear him shouting back at the military and firing along with Edward. He could feel the cold metal of the rifle in his hands and the shock of electricity that vibrated through his bones with each shot he fired. They had agreed to fight against this Bane and the military alongside the GCPD in order to regain order and humanity in their city. As supplies were wearing thin within Gotham and more people were dying, some being friends, those who stood at both sides of the law had come together out of the desperation to save their city before it truly fell apart. 

“We were fighting the military alongside the GCPD” Ed began.

Without hesitation or alert, Oswald had pushed Ed to the ground, out of the way of the gunfire in a shielding motion. Which in turn left himself a vulnerable target. 

“Oswald pushed me away from my post. He must have seen a gun that was aimed for my head that I had failed to notice”. 

Like watching a feather slowly glide to the floor, the bullet pierced through Oswald’s skull and Edward observed in slow motion, the look of trauma on the other man’s face as he fell to the ground. Without a second’s thought, Ed had left his post and rushed to Oswald’s side and consequently gasped in horror at the bloodied wound along his right eye. His hands quickly made their way to either side of Oswald’s head as Ed searched for any sign of consciousness, any sign that his friend was still with him. Oswald’s unharmed eye was closed but thankfully, he was still breathing. 

It was nothing short of a miracle that even now, Oswald was still alive. 

Edward opened his eyes again, trying to shake the memory away. 

“He took a bullet for you” Lee affirmed, who Ed almost forgot he was talking to. 

Ed simply nodded and focused again on Oswald, observing how his chest gently lifted as he took in each breath. He appeared before Edward a celestial being, a martyr, a figure of proof that even bad men were sometimes rewarded with miracles. 

“There is no doubt in my mind that if Oswald hadn’t of moved me out of the way, that bullet would have killed me instantly”, Ed pledged, his voice slightly louder. 

Lee nodded in response, “I don’t doubt that either”.

Ed cleared his throat, standing up to walk over and take the medical supplies by Oswald’s bed. 

“Thank you, Lee. Truly” He spoke, looking back over his shoulder to the doctor. 

Lee began walking back towards the door, concluding that she had done all she could do to help both men. 

“I have to get back to Jim. You have my number, call me when he wakes up” she said, leaving Ed a sympathetic glance before walking out the door. 

As the doctor left, Ed pulled his chair even closer to Oswald’s side. He took his glasses off and moved himself, so his arms and torso fit over the hospital bed. He gently lifted Oswald, so the younger man could fit his arms around him. He turned Oswald to his side and held him impossibly close as Ed buried his face into the other man’s hair. He inhaled deeply and exhaled with another shaky breath. He could feel himself cracking like a porcelain doll. 

Ed brushed Oswald’s hair back and kissed his forehead, tears now dripping onto the smaller man’s skin. 

“You silly, silly bird” Ed whispered to him, continuing to gently stroke his hair as it began to ground him back to reality. 

He could feel Oswald stir ever so slightly beneath him, subconsciously pushing himself further into Edward’s embrace. 

The city may have been war torn and isolated in corruption and poverty against the rest of the country, but Edward’s only concern was with Oswald. To him, Gotham wasn’t a city worth fighting for if Oswald wasn’t there to fight alongside him. 

Ed continued his delicate ministrations until he found himself falling asleep. He moved Oswald’s pillow to the side so that both men’s heads nestled on top of it and closed his eyes.   
Ed felt his eyes slowly open up however as he felt a hand gently cascade along his cheekbone. 

With a hooded eyelid, and the other eye completely covered, Oswald looked back at Ed with a tired smile. 

“Oswald?” Ed gasped, maybe a little too loudly considering how close they both were to each other. Oswald looked over Ed, as if both proud of himself for saving his partner and astonished that he did indeed save him. 

Ed gave the wounded man a soft kiss to his nose and caressed his cheek as a silent thank you. Oswald appeared much too tired for tearful conversing for the moment. 

Instead Ed reached over to the side table to collect the painkillers and shifted off the bed to grab Oswald a glass of water. 

As he poured the water into the glass, he couldn’t suppress smiling to himself. 

In a city corrupted with decay and sin, blessings could still be present if you searched hard enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so all the medical stuff trust and believe I have no idea what I made Lee say like I'm no doctor so don't clock me on my medical inaccuracies. I think they've made it kinda clear that Oswald will get either shot or stabbed in the eye and the fact that he is gonna survive that doesn't surprise me so I tried to make it seem like the bullet skimmed post him but still made some contact with his eye.
> 
> This was really rushed and definitely not my best work and I think my shortest one but I just wanted to write something like this bc when I think of concepts like this I just gotta get it out :) 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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